Throughout history human beings have tried to contact persons who meet their requirements and to avoid contacting persons who waste their time. This especially concerns marriage, but also other kind of human relationships. People have always gone parties where they can eat and dance and talk with each other, for example. Some parties are intended only for singles, but mostly parties are intended for everyone who likes to enjoy social life. People have different backgrounds, living habits etc. and they have different expectations and requirements concerning persons whom they would like to contact and with whom they like to spend time. Some people are shy or they have some other difficulties in expressing themselves. Restaurants are popular places for men and women to meet, but it may take time and money to find an interesting person in a restaurant.
In the Internet age it is, in principle, easier to contact a person who fulfils one's requirements. It is possible to use different kinds of dating services via the Internet. Those dating services are explained in the following paragraph.
A person, who likes to introduce him/herself through a dating service, browses by an Internet browser to the web site providing the dating service. Then the person fills an electronic form termed a “profile”. A profile includes questions concerning the person's own age, height, education, hobbies, favourite food, a favourite radio channel etc. In addition, the profile includes at least one text field in which the person describes what kind of person he or she is looking for. The profile also includes contact information, such as an email address. When the profile is filled, the dating service adds it to a set of profiles. The dating service contains means for selecting the profiles from the set of profiles. Another person, who wants to check out the profiles, browses to the web site of the dating service. Then the person fills an electronic form for a search and the dating service searches the profiles that match the electronic form filled.
When comparing restaurants with the dating services the following advantages and drawbacks can be found.
In restaurants the people can see each other and maybe touch each other on a dance floor. Thus, the advantage of the restaurants is that people can at once see each other's appearance, and if they talk, they can at once hear each other's manner of speaking. The drawback is that finding an interesting person and starting a conversation with him or her may be exhausting.
In a dating service a person, who gives his/her profile to the service, can describe with many words, if needed, themselves and their expectations. And people, who are checking out the profiles, can easily pick up the most interesting profiles. Thus, the advantage of the dating service is that, the people can express their expectations straight without being discourteous. The drawback is that the first contact to a person is virtual, i.e. a profile with contact information, such as an email address. After emailing it might be possible to meet the owner of the profile.
Of course, the restaurants are just one place to meet people. There are different kinds of clubs and hobbies in which people can meet each other and possibly find a desired partner. There are also available Internet services which differ somewhat from the dating service described. However, the drawback of the prior art is that there is no system able to provide face-to-face contact between two persons so that said persons would know that their profiles match.